JOPLIN, Mo. – Brooklyn Lyles belted a tie-breaking grand slam in the fifth inning to catapult Central Oklahoma past No. 5-ranked Missouri Southern 8-4 in the first game of the Central Super Regional Thursday afternoon at the Pat Lipira Softball Complex.
The No. 11 Bronchos also got solo homers from Rylee Lemos and Haley Gallo along with a clutch relief performance from Madison Hamilton in ending MSSU's 15-game winning streak. UCO improved to 46-14 while the MIAA rival Lions fell to 51-8.
The best-of-three series resumes at 3 p.m. Friday, with the "if necessary" game to follow. The Central Regional champion joins seven other regional winners in the Division II Championship Finals that will be held May 28-June 3 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
"From the very first inning I thought we had some incredibly competitive bats," head coach Sam Maples said. "I thought we did a really good job of game planning and adjusting for a fantastic pitcher in Kiki (Pickens, the MIAA Pitcher of the Year).
"That starts with Rylee Lemos. I was just super proud of her, especially as a senior and leader of this team, for immediately just giving us a spark and getting our team going."
Lemos smacked a double to left-center field to start the game and eventually scored on Haley Gallo's RBI groundout to give UCO a quick 1-0 lead. The Central Region Player of the Year struck again to open the third, blasting the first pitch she saw over the center field fence for her 15th homer of the season.
Kennedy Clark drew a two-out walk to keep the inning alive, went to second on Jenna Jobe's single that bounced off Pickens in the circle and hustled home on Hannah Demoff's base hit to left.
That made it 3-0, but the MIAA champion Lions didn't make it this far by accident. MSSU scored once in the bottom of the third and then tied it in the fourth with a two-run homer before Hamilton came on in relief of starter Carleigh Kinnaird to get out of the inning.
The Bronchos answered back in the fifth, with Lyles delivering the decisive blow.
Gallo roped a one-out double to center field – her freshman school-record 22nd of the season - and Clark was hit by pitch before both advanced on Jobe's groundout. MSSU then plunked Demoff to load the bases for Lyles, who hammered a 1-1 pitch to left-center for her sixth homer that put UCO on top 7-3.
"They (MSSU) are obviously a great team and punched us back," Maples said. "We go 3-3 and they brought in Emily Davis, who is another fantastic pitcher for them. I thought our hitters did a nice job adjusting to her, not giving in to the strike zone and chasing pitches.
"We end up getting the bases loaded and Brooklyn Lyles comes up and puts it away with a grand slam. I was just really proud how our team competed as a whole where we're getting production one through nine in our lineup."
The Lions scored once in the bottom of the fifth to pull without 7-4, but Gallo led off the seventh with a moon shot over the left field fence for her 16th homer to push the lead to 8-4. Hamilton gave up a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh before getting three straight fly outs to end it.
Hamilton went the final 3.2 innings to pick up the win, improving to 4-3. The freshman allowed four hits and one run with no walks and two strikeouts after fellow rookie Kinnaird threw the first 3.1 innings.
"We had two freshmen in the circle that game," Maples said. "Carleigh did a great job and when they started to figure her out a little bit, we changed the pace with MJ (Hamilton) and she did a fantastic job."
UCO finished with seven hits, getting two apiece from Lemos and Gallo.
